Does Dioxin In Plastic Bottles Cause Cancer?

Does drinking out of plastic water bottles bad for your health? Some recent research suggests that the answer just might be yes. The concern started with the email circulating about Cheryl Crow and her concern about dioxins leaching into water bottles which she believes caused her to get breast cancer.

Below is the email, and our surprising findings:

Following is the comments sent from a friend of mine. I would appreciate your analysis: facts or myth…thanks…Don

No matter how many times you get this E-mail, Please send it on!!!! Bottled water in your car is very dangerous! On the Ellen show, Sheryl Crow said that this is what caused her breast cancer. It has been identified as the most common cause of the high levels of dioxin in breast cancer tissue..

Sheryl Crow's oncologist told her:women should not drink bottled water that has been left in a car. The heat reacts with the chemicals in the plastic of the bottle which releases dioxin into the water. Dioxin is a toxin increasingly found in breast cancer tissue. So please be careful and do not drink bottled water that has been left in a car.

Pass this on to all the women in your life. This information is the kind we need to know that just might save us! Use a stainless steel canteen or a glass bottle instead of plastic! LET EVERYONE WHO HAS A WIFE / GIRLFRIEND / DAUGHTER KNOW PLEASE!

This information is also being circulated atWalter Reed Army Medical Center .. No plastic containers in microwaves. No plastic water bottles in freezers. No plastic wrap in microwaves.

Dioxin chemical causes cancer, especially breast cancer. Dioxins are highly poisonous to cells in our bodies. Don't freeze plasticbottles with water in them as this releases dioxins from the plastic. Recently the Wellness Program Manager atCastle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard.

He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.He said that we should not be heating food in the microwave using plastic containers.... This especially applies to foods that contain fat.

He said that the combination of fat, high heat and plastic releases dioxin into the food.

Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Pyrex or ceramiccontainers for heating food. You get the same result, but without the dioxin. So, such things as TV dinners, instant soups, etc.,should be removed from their containers and heated in something else.

Paper isn't bad but you don't know what is in the paper..It's safer to use tempered glass, such as Pyrex, etc.

He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved awayfrom the styrene foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons...

Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Cling film, is just as dangerous whenplaced over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the highheat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead. This is an article that should be sent to anyone important in your life!

This email has been debunked by other websites as an urban myth, (Snopes, wrong again!) but in fact plastic bottles do present a potential health hazard, not from dioxin but from estogenic compounds in the pastic that leach into the water:

PET bottles potential health hazard

Water bottles made from PET plastic leach compounds that mimic the hormone estrogen raising questions about their safety, say German researchers.

Previous research has focused on plastics containing the chemical bisphenol-a (BPA). During that time regular PET plastic water bottles have maintained a reputation as safe, at least as far as human health is concerned.

But new evidence suggests that PET, or polyethylene terephthalate, may not be so benign after all.

Scientists at Goethe University in Frankfurt found that estrogenic compounds leach from the plastic into the water.

Eight weeks later, female snails living in plastic bottles had more than twice as many embryos inside their bodies compared to the glass-grown snails.'

German mineral water comes from natural springs. So, to see if the estrogenic compounds were actually coming from the water itself, Wagner emptied the bottles and replaced the water with a pure snail medium and a tiny species of snail that is especially sensitive to estrogenic compounds.

So unless you are like the octo-mom and need to double up on your embyos, its probably better to avoid the plastic!